A half-assed movie blog

This week’s movies: May 11-18

Netflix Summary: What if everyone around you was suddenly convinced that you were a spy? This classic from master director Alfred Hitchcock stars Cary Grant as an advertising executive who looks a little too much like someone else and is forced to go on the lam (helped along by Eva Marie Saint). Hitchcock’s sure-handed comic drama pits Grant against a crop duster and lands him in a fight for his life on Mount Rushmore — a true cliffhanger if ever there was one.

★★★★ Watch this movie if for no other reason than to see Cary Grant act insanely drunk. Or to watch people fist fight on Mount Rushmore. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and agree with its place in the AFI top 100, along with basically every other Hitchcock movie.

Pillow Talk

Netflix Summary: Womanizing songwriter Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) spends hours on the phone wooing his many women. Problem is, he shares a party line with prim interior decorator Jan Morrow (Doris Day), who’s miffed because she can’t get any calls. Then Brad gets a gander at Jan — and it’s lust at first sight. Realizing he’s a goner if Jan learns his true identity, Brad concocts a Texas persona to seduce her. When the truth comes out, there’s hell to pay.

★★★★ Knowing the historical context of the women’s movement and the censorship rules, makes this movie seem brilliant. A good representation of the cultural segue from the 1950s to the 1960s.

Your Highness

Netflix Summary: When a twisted wizard kidnaps the virginal fiancée of a valiant prince, his ne’er-do-well brother grudgingly joins his sibling on a quest to rescue the beautiful damsel. Along the way, the duo meets their match in a fetching female warrior.

★★ It’s not so much that I didn’t like it. It’s just that I’ve come to expect good comedy from this crowd and this movie just didn’t meet those expectations.